She has won 43 golf championships but Dulcie Baker passed another numerical milestone in December.
The long-time Springwood resident turned 100 on Sunday, December 19.
Mrs Baker is a life member of the Springwood Golf Club where she was women's champion seven times and foursomes champion nine times. She also won championships in the Hunter area, Western District and Nepean. All up, the keen golfer has won 43 championships and continued to play at Springwood until her early nineties.
Mrs Baker was born on a property near Bingara in northern NSW in 1921. She was the second eldest daughter of Jim and Ivy Turner. She had five brothers and five sisters.
She was married in 1939 and had three children. The 100-year-old now has 10 grandchildren, 13 great grandchildren and nine great great grandchildren.
Mrs Baker's husband, Gordon Baker (deceased) was the principal of Faulconbridge School in the 1960s and 1970s. The couple lived in many different places in NSW as Mr Baker was moved to teach at different towns, including remote one-teacher schools.
Mrs Baker said she has had a wonderful life - but it has not always been an easy. For more than a third of her life she lived in places that had no electricity, no telephone and no town water. She has certainly needed resilience to cope with all the things that life has thrown at her and to make it to 100.
The Bakers used to holiday in the Blue Mountains in the 1940s and 1950s before moving to Springwood in 1968. Mrs Baker has now lived in Springwood for the last 53 years.
She celebrated her birthday with a lunch at Springwood Sports Club attended by many of her family and some close friends.
Dulcie Baker now lives in Buckland Retirement Village.
